Photography has come a long way from its origins in the 1820’s, through glass and metal plates to rolls of film and chemical processing. We then saw the rapid acceleration into and through digital. Given its nearly been 200 years, have we really seen that much change? What quantum leaps are we about to make? We’ve put on our thinking caps, not physically of course, despite predictions in the past, ‘thinking caps’ don’t exist. Here are some predictions for the future.
Location
Will you even need to be ‘there’ in the future? It started with web cams, now  already give us access to real-time visibility of the world. In the future perhaps one will be able to ‘log on’ to ‘something’ and start shooting. Maybe it will be a moving ‘camera’, maybe a drone, maybe via satellite technology, maybe, more likely by something that hasn’t even been invented yet.
In the future you could wake up and think ‘today I’m going to shoot Monument Valley’ you could navigate from your console, seeking out the best angles, the best light. Rather than traipsing around in scorching heat with limiting factors such as time and conditions.
Picture selection
Will buyers using images simply ‘tell’ the design software the sort of image they are looking for and it will ask a number of questions back? It could verify what you need and drop right into your design a shot it feels is appropriate. Perhaps that shot will be from a vast database of verified and approved images to use. If you don’t like the one chosen, ‘tell’ the software why and you’ll get alternatives.
Searching with the mind
Maybe technology that we announced on April Fools Day 2011 will become reality. When we made this ‘announcement’ more than a few industry figures already believed it to be true!
No more cameras
Surely one day we’ll blink to take pictures and squint to focus, visuals will be taken by our brains and transferred from our thoughts into external images that advertisers, designers and other visual storytellers can use.
No stone un-turned
We’ll have images for every corner of the globe, the deepest oceans and the highest peaks, but also far off planets. Evidence of life forms on another world surely will first be documented through imagery rather than an astronaut bumping into an alien with three heads. Satellite drones with cameras will get there before man.
On the Go
GoPro’s won’t be strapped to our heads they’ll be streaming live from a chip behind our retinas into a database of memories.
Personalised imagery
It’s a logical progression that in the future every advert you see in will be visible with you wearing the clothes or you driving the car, you’ll have the ultimate personal shopping experience online, perhaps with added value opinion! “That tie really does not go with your ginger hair Mr Evans”.
Will it be all about manipulation?
VR is already pushing the boundaries of reality, but photography will always be the medium to reflect reality, to capture that specific moment and to document it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if important photos could be ‘locked’ to protect their editorial integrity.
Who’s in the shot?
Visual recognition already spots if there are people present. But will it identify the people, not just their age and ethnicity etc, but the actual person, their name, their details and their model release permissions if appropriate?
Alerts and prompts
Real time alerts for photographers will reach new levels. Super intelligent prompts, ‘don’t shoot from that spot, the angles are better ten paces to the left’. Maybe your phone wakes you if the sunrise is going to be perfect this morning but gives you a lie in if it’s cloudy. While you sleep you are transported overnight by flying bed capsules that take you to your next location, OK OK maybe that’s just a sleeper train!
Exclusions zones
Maybe technology won’t be all about the opportunities. Cameras (in whatever form) won’t physically work inside areas where security or other permissions prohibit photography. that concert goers spend more time watching and listening and less time filming!
Doomsday scenario?
Maybe nothing will be real, nothing will reflect reality and everything will be created, Virtual Reality as reality maybe? Scary as hell, but not inconceivable?
With all of the above, we realise it could take a lot of the fun, the challenge and the skill and craft away from photography, but it’s hard to stop the march of technology, better to embrace it and twist and turn it to our advantage.
How will we licence imagery in this brave new world? Well let’s just hope that all or some of the above isn’t played out against a back drop of continued confusion over whether an image should be sold RF or RM and debates about whether a dog needs a model release or not. Come on technology..sort it out!